This is Chicago
On the MBA and Chicago GSB
Vineeth Subramanyam '07
Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: Admit Weekend
These benefits do come at a cost - yes, the MBA is expensive. However, realize that the MBA is a long-term investment. To grapple with your concerns about opportunity cost, consider where your career is headed now and where you will be in ten years without the MBA. Be realistic about your prediction. Now ask yourself the same question assuming you have an MBA and everything that comes with it. Keep in mind that post-MBA salaries are typically much higher compared to those before business school and some companies even reimburse part of your tuition. Regardless, depending on the type of career, many people break-even on their MBA investment in a very manageable time frame.
Let's move to the next question: Why Chicago GSB? Many people will tell you that top-tier business schools are mostly alike in terms of reputation, education, career prospects and network. That may be true to some extent and Chicago GSB is certainly stellar on all those fronts. Academically, the faculty represents a collection of leading thinkers and doers. I continue to be impressed with the quality of education that I have received in entrepreneurship, finance, economics and strategy. Career-wise, Chicago GSB successfully sends throngs of people to popular desirable post-MBA destinations like top-tier consulting firms, investment banks and several other companies. But beyond these obvious factors, there are other attributes that set Chicago GSB squarely apart from other schools. As you think through your choices, I would urge you to focus on what really matters to you, what you want to get out of the MBA experience, and which school can help you plug gaps in skills or experience and best get you there.
The most significant differentiator of Chicago GSB, at least for me, has been the flexible curriculum. The curriculum has certain breadth requirements to ensure a balanced education, but every student has the powerful option to chart his/her own academic path. Where this comes in extremely handy is for people who may be more experienced in certain fields than others - if this is the case, those students can by-pass introductory courses in favor of more advanced topics or entirely different ones. For example, a CPA (unlike the unlucky rest of us) should never have to sit through a basic accounting course; a student interviewing for investment banking can take a different set of courses compared to another who is interviewing for consulting. Apart from the academic flexibility, the Chicago curriculum has another important benefit - students simply meet more students. Instead of being chained to the same group for all classes, with the option of taking different classes, students typically meet a fresh set of classmates every quarter. This tremendously helps in widening your network while you're at school.
Let's move to the next question: Why Chicago GSB? Many people will tell you that top-tier business schools are mostly alike in terms of reputation, education, career prospects and network. That may be true to some extent and Chicago GSB is certainly stellar on all those fronts. Academically, the faculty represents a collection of leading thinkers and doers. I continue to be impressed with the quality of education that I have received in entrepreneurship, finance, economics and strategy. Career-wise, Chicago GSB successfully sends throngs of people to popular desirable post-MBA destinations like top-tier consulting firms, investment banks and several other companies. But beyond these obvious factors, there are other attributes that set Chicago GSB squarely apart from other schools. As you think through your choices, I would urge you to focus on what really matters to you, what you want to get out of the MBA experience, and which school can help you plug gaps in skills or experience and best get you there.
The most significant differentiator of Chicago GSB, at least for me, has been the flexible curriculum. The curriculum has certain breadth requirements to ensure a balanced education, but every student has the powerful option to chart his/her own academic path. Where this comes in extremely handy is for people who may be more experienced in certain fields than others - if this is the case, those students can by-pass introductory courses in favor of more advanced topics or entirely different ones. For example, a CPA (unlike the unlucky rest of us) should never have to sit through a basic accounting course; a student interviewing for investment banking can take a different set of courses compared to another who is interviewing for consulting. Apart from the academic flexibility, the Chicago curriculum has another important benefit - students simply meet more students. Instead of being chained to the same group for all classes, with the option of taking different classes, students typically meet a fresh set of classmates every quarter. This tremendously helps in widening your network while you're at school.
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